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Youth leaders go through various cycles of progression in their lives as they transition from adolescence to adulthood. This progression is not homogeneous but there are questions and lessons that are built through the mutual lived experiences.

In the past 5 years I have gone through changes in my professional life moving from the edges to the front lines of policy advocacy for action, health systems strengthening and last mile in service delivery for reproductive health and youth development programs.

I wanted to share some of the lessons I have learnt, still re-learning everyday with youth leaders and hope you find this useful with your journey (all the best):

It is okay to focus on one thing

This was very hard for me to do in the beginning as I was used to juggling and trying to drive multiple interventions at the same time. At the end of each year the outcomes were never as great as I had anticipated, I hadn’t stimulated change and sustainable linkages for youth development at the level I desired. When I started focusing on one thing, I was able to facilitate key stakeholder collaborations and be part of the team to design and implement the Youth Friendly Health Services Program Evaluation. Being about one thing especially when my former colleagues were still doing the multiple juggle made me feel like I was not doing enough. However if I had not been able to focus on one thing I wouldn’t have been able to do the important things first.

Learn to say no

Just because you can doesn’t mean you must. Social causes are great and volunteering in your free time to pass on skills is something we should all do but we must not take on more than we can deliver. This in the end affects the quality of what you are able to deliver and reliability. Learning how to say no has been liberating and has allowed me to do things on my own terms.

Be selfish, self-development should never be compromised

For young people who are advocates thinking of oneself instead of people you can support through your zeal for change almost seems wrong and used to make me feel guilty, it still does at times. With each year I grow in the belief that the only way I can best serve others is when I can better facilitate change this will only happen if I invest in my personal development. No one will invest in your self-development but yourself, guard it jealously. The only way to progress is to continuous move forward on the self-development spectrum.

Allies can be found in the most unlikely places

Don’t be blinded by past experiences and what others say, at times the people who you need to collaborate with are often in places you are not familiar with but need to be sought out. This is especially true in public policy advocacy and youth agenda implementation the stakeholders that wield the most power might not be the most vocal in the room and past efforts might have secluded them contributing to a cycle of seeming in-progress. Always be open, practice being non-judgmental and find common ground through mutual respect and understanding of each partner’s roles.

Be knowledgeable, a little knowledge does more harm than good

A little knowledge might provide you a step in the door however to be able to influence others, processes and structures you need to know all the players and the context you are operating in. Never assume people know what you know and that you understand what they do without fully comprehending the parameter’s that govern their life and how other factors come to play.

Understand existing evidence, generate evidence, explore perceptions of people and communities you work with, this prevents wasting limited resources while facilitating successful intervention that are adaptable.

Take risks

Jump with both feet, what do you have to lose you are young and the world around you is rapidly changing. Taking risks challenges our perceptions and just because it hasn’t been done doesn’t mean it can’t be done. The risks I have taken in the last 4 years have enabled me to advance my professional life and networks. Was it uncomfortable and at times draining? yes, but I always had to remind myself why I took the risks in the first place. If I never took any risks I would still be where I was 4 years ago and that would have made me bitter, highly unmotivated and unproductive

Make time for you

Make time to appreciate the little things in life and things that make you happy outside of your causes and work. Burnout sneaks in when you need to be efficient and present. Blocking time for self-care and work responsibilities is important for morale and efficiency. It is important to take care of yourself. Self-care provides time for self-reflection and self-development enabling us to ask ourselves the difficult questions and also to enjoy the moment as it is.

Networking is the golden pin

You never know who is in the room with you and they might be the person you need to recommend you a job or collaborate with. Know where you want to end up but be flexible to change this will assist you to use every networking opportunity productivity. Learn how to stay visible in your area of practice. Learn and relearn how to market your skills, how to give an elevator speech and always be open to new opportunities when they are presented.

Stay passionate it helps when all seems bleak

You are going to want to quit, feel disillusioned, feel like all your investments and input have not contributed to any tangible impact. At times like that being passionate about what you do will enable you to persevere and push forward. Passion will fuel your creativity to explore realistic attainable alternatives to resolve a short or long-term inherent bottleneck.

Always respect others and practice humility, practice active listening you don’t know everything and you will always need to work with other people.

Likoma Island is a well hidden and not so well hidden secret to Malawi’s ultimate Island experience and unspoiled virgin beaches.

crystal clear refreshing inviting waters

Everyone should visit Likoma at least once which will wet their appetite as it did my friends and me, now we can’t wait to visit the Island again and again. Likoma can be found in the northern waters of Lake Malawi; Likoma and Chizumulu Islands make up Likoma District.

The meeting of MV Ilala and MV Chilembwe on Lake Malawi

Travelling to the Island is an adventure in itself; with the option of using the ILALA ship which has sailed to LIKOMA for over 60 years since 1951. Stepping on this ship is part of the LIKOMA experience and it shouldn’t be missed, the top deck offers a 360 view of lake Malawi and its restaurant will surprise you with tasty food. MV Chilembwe is a faster, more modern ship; ilala’s modern emancipated smaller baby and it gets you to the island 1 hour and 30 mins faster than Ilala. Traveling by water enables every visitor to enjoy and appreciate Lake Malawi more, the waters are so blue and at some point a pretty shade of green with the sun twinkling off the waters surface. On a clear night the view is a feast for avid star gazers and also time to soak in the pretty skies with the moon shinning on lake Malawi. Visitors can also fly to Likoma and enjoy the beautiful aerial views of the island. Travelling to Likoma during the Likoma Music Festival is the best decision we made as the Ilala’s top deck became the festival goers club with the DJ spinning his tracks and the whole ship our playground.

Arriving in Likoma can be an emotional experience from land to water and back on land surrounded by water with different types of accommodation on offer depending on the traveler’s choice including the famous award-winning Kaya Mawa resort. In recent years the island has been named as one of the top destinations to visit, it doesn’t take one long to figure out why. Ulisa Bay Lodge welcomed my friends and me with warmth, were attentive and anticipated our every need, it was our little happy place.

Ulisa Bay

Ulisa bay

Ulisa Bay, one with the waters

Ulisa Bay

It is a place that speaks to the soul, the waters call you to swim in them even when you don’t know how to, the clear waters have hundreds species of little colorful fish that are visible right from the beach, providing an excellent snorkeling treat for all.

Soaking up the Likoma sun with Mozambique in the distance at Chiponde Beach

The island has the best beaches, hidden coves, friendly people, history and ultimate get away for an easy relaxed vacation. it is best enjoyed with friends and family.

On the Ilala with the girls

Visitors on the island can go on boat cruises around Likoma and Chizumulu islands, to Mozambique which is only 7 kms away, walks and cycling on the nature trails around the island, visit Fudwe museum, diving, sailing and more water sports. The annual Likoma Music festival hosted at Chiponde Beach offers visitors and festival goers a nonstop party in the sun and moonlight with music, performances and traditional dances.

Malawi urban music artist Bucci

catching the fun at #LiFEST

Tradition dance troupe at Chiponde Beach #LiFEST

The visit is not complete without a tour of the St Peter’s Cathedral, the third largest cathedral in Central Africa. Built in 1903, the architectural style and details are enthralling. I was told and have always read that the cathedral is huge until I visited I still had my doubts about the scale of it. The cathedral bell tower roof offers one of the best views of lake Malawi, the island’s coves and beaches.

Adolescent sexual reproductive health is a multi-sectoral priority and must address opportunities, challenges and linkages beyond the health sector. Recognizing that young people are dynamic and are constantly engaging with the environment around them; successful programs addressing adolescent sexual reproductive health always seek to transform the cultural & gender norms from within the communities, leverage educations gains especially for girls as this has proven to delay marriage, promote active participation of young people in community development activities thus promote healthy seeking behaviors among adolescents on a greater scale. Minimizing missed chances to provide adolescents with comprehensive knowledge about sex, relationships and pregnancy.

Young people are best served when evidence based programming is encouraged; which guarantees that programs designed and implemented for and with youth address key drivers for improved health outcomes among young people. Evidence enables leveraging of resources and technical expertise among stakeholders as roles get clearly defined through the data presented. Here is a little of that data to help along the way ……

Indicator

Status

Source

Child Marriage

· 19.5% girls and 1.9% boys 15 – 19 years

· Half of the women were married before their 19th birthday

MDHS 2010

Abuse

· One in three children has been physical, mentally, or sexually abused

· 7.8% of girls and boys aged 18 – 24 have been sexually abused with 2.0% of this abuse being perpetrated prior to age 18 with less than a quarter of males and females aged 18 to 24 years knowing of a place to seek help about an experience of sexual violence.

VACS 2014

VACS 2013

Social Services

· 33.0% of girls 18 – 24 years reported getting pregnant as a result of unwanted completed sex, yet they did not report the assault

VACS 2013

Drug and Alcohol Use

· 50% of the drug and alcohol related cases that come before the courts involve young people

· Hospital records at Zomba Mental Hospital shows that of the 1,890 admissions received, 269 cases (14%) were a result of cannabis and alcohol and involved youth

Did you know you can access free Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in government health facilities and through social marketing organizations and local NGOs that implement sexual and reproductive health services?

Government health facilities provide free services to all Malawians including Sexual and Reproductive Health services & contraceptives to all people of reproductive age

With increased government’s commitment to Sexual and Reproductive Health especially the re-positioning of family planning as a key strategy for addressing Malawi’s rapid population growth characterized by high adolescent pregnancies. The government of Malawi also made a commitment in July 2012 at the London Family Planning summit;

With the goal of “no parenthood before adulthood,” Malawi committed to raising the country’s contraceptive prevalence rate to 60% by 2020 with a focused increase in those aged 15 to 24.

Banja La Mstongolo has been providing sexual and reproductive health services in Malawi since 1987. BLM aims to address maternal mortality while combating HIV/AIDS and unsafe abortion by ensuring that women have access to options in family planning, and the tools and knowledge necessary for preventing HIV infection; with emphasis on the provision of long-acting and permanent methods.

Did you know that through their clinics across the country BLM provides FREE Sexual and Reproductive Health services including comprehensive sexual reproductive health counseling and contraceptives to young people below the age of 25.

Family Planning Association of Malawi FPAM is a member Association of International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). FPAM works towards a world where women, men and young people everywhere have control over their own bodies, and therefore their destinies.

FPAM provides FREE contraceptive services to young people through their clinics and youth life centres in Kawale – Lilongwe, Dowa, Kasungu, Ntcheu, Dedza and Mangochi.

PSI Malawi in partnership with Ministry of Health – HEU have a 321 call service that provides information (on health, agriculture & gender through airtel numbers only). Young people can use this service to learn more about HIV and Contraception in a timely, private and confidential manner through one’s mobile phone; making it an effective and accessible source of information.

Through interpersonal communication agents affiliated to PSI Malawi social franchise network TUNZA Clinics; they provide vouchers to their community clients that they can use to access free contraceptives services from a TUNZA clinic in their community.

These partnerships for SRH and family planning are leveraging the reach, access and utilization of Sexual Reproductive Health services including HTC and long acting reversible contraceptives by young people. This initiative of providing free contraceptive services to youth recognizes the critical need of providing wide range of contraceptives to young people enabling young people to make voluntary informed choice on the contraceptive methods they want to use according to their stage in their life cycle.

These three organization are supporting government in strengthening Youth Friendly Health Services including HIV and AIDS components to effectively delivery information and services to young people.

if you are a young person looking for information and services regarding your sexual reproductive health Remember to use the 321 call service, services are provided for you for free at Service Delivery Points in the highlighted and affiliated facilities. Choose to learn more and prevent unintended pregnancy, HIV and AIDS, STI infections IT IS IN YOUR HANDS

Youth groups can also mobilize their members and youth in the community to access and utilize these services fully.

The CONDOMIZE Campaign kicked off in Malawi dubbed “CONDOMIZEMALAWI” campaign with a bang in 2013 with the aim of de-stigmatizing the big C aka Passport the “CONDOM” both female and male condoms among #youth spearheaded by UNFPA Malawi, Ministry of Youth and Sports with support from the condom project and CONDOMIZE campaign team.

To promote its proper and consistent use to prevent pregnancy, HIV and AIDS and STI infections.

CONDOMIZE & KNOW UR STATUS

The campaign has engaged diverse stakeholders so far such as journalists, youth leaders, youth workers, health workers, government officials and key partners in adolescent health. This campaign is the first program to systematically target college students in Malawi; most programs on youth sexual reproductive health have sidelined college students under the assumption that they are knowledgeable and know how to adhere to healthy sexual behaviors.

Styling it up with CONDOMIZE

The truth is that young people in our colleges are having SEX but they lack information to make healthy sexual behaviors decisions.

An informative male condom DEMO by a female student

In Chancellor College this campaign was able to facilitate a platform for college students to start having thesex and safe sex conversation

This dude broke DOWN how to use female condom . he was on point

through the comprehensive information offered at the education zone during the open days event and training of students campus youth peer educators on #condoms to facilitate dialogue beyond the open day events, the pin making table offered fun and how to style up with CONDOMIZEMalawi campaign.

CONDOM pamphlet in case you miss a step

Diktator doing his thing

Urban music artists headlined the concert that had college students showing off their dance styles

Piksy singing some CONDOMIZE tunes

with fun facts, how to use female and male condoms segments, condom quizzes on their locally coined #CONDOMIZE slogans, myths and misconceptions among other side activities.

The concept “youth-friendly services” have been being used for several years now by SRH programs but it is not always easy to capture what it is in practice. Too often, organizations embark on providing youth-friendly services as an additional activity to simply include on list of their program and don’t carefully explore their readiness to listen to young people’s complex and diverse voices in the matter. Program reports focus on the number of services provided and young people served, paying less attention to how friendly those young people were served. From my experience, interactions with my fellow young people, service providers and SRH experts, and review of existing literature on SRH I am happy to give the following advice for our services to be qualified as youth friendly.

Empowering young people and giving them options for choices: Our services should not exclusively address needs of young people but…